Hold Me
by D-chan
Summary: YamagiRoose :: possible OOC, language, shounen ai :: Sequel to Adoration :: After a brutal training session, Zero discovers Yamagi's secret. Who else knows?


**:: Hold Me ::**

Sequel to _Adoration_****

by _D-chan_

Megami Kouhosei

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Yamagi+Roose

Warnings: possible OOC, shounen ai, language

Disclaimer: Once again, I still don't own MK. Or the characters. I hardly even own the entire plot; FT gave me the idea for it. *shrug*

Notes: Wow! I was amazed at the feedback _Adoration_ received. I didn't think so many people would even be interested in reading it. ^_^ Thank you soooo much! Since some of you asked for it, here's the sequel! I wanted to do one, anyway... Yamagi and Roose are soooo cute!

And... Kay-sama reviewed it. o_o I'm... Honored. @.@ Thank you, Kay-sama! I love your site!

_Bee-beep. Bee-beep. Bee-beep._

Warm... He was unnaturally warm. He'd never felt so comfortable waking up before. Even before the second beep sounded, he opened his eyes only to be greeted with the answer as to why he felt so warm.

"R-Roose!"

Yamagi Kushida didn't naturally stammer; his own outburst surprised him. It didn't seem to faze the sleepy boy curled up beside him. Roose Sawamura, his roommate, friend and crush, yawned and opened his wide, innocent, sweet green eyes. He smiled, his lips curving up in a gesture just as sweet as his eyes. "Ohayo, Yamagi-kun," he practically sang.

It came back to Yamagi then, how Roose had woken up in the middle of the night, afraid that Yamagi had left. He was a very clingy and dependent boy, preferring to cling to Yamagi more than any of their other classmates. Yamagi had been so startled by Roose's whining call that he'd (stupidly?) told him that if he was going to be so insecure about it, he might as well sleep with him. Before he'd made that comment, Yamagi had never realized he could take things the wrong way any worse than Zero... That was saying something.

But Roose, being the same innocent and naive boy he was, had happily taken Yamagi up on his offer and crawled into bed beside him, falling asleep almost instantly.

Thank God that was _all_ he'd done.

"O-Ohayo," he muttered.

"Sleep well?" Roose questioned, stretching and throwing his legs over the side of Yamagi's bed.

Taken aback by the question, as normally the first thing out of Roose's mouth in the morning was that he was hungry, Yamagi found himself stumbling over his words again. "H-Huh? Oh... Yeah. Yeah, whatever."

Humming happily, Roose proceeded to tug on his GOA training uniform. Yamagi had to look away, fixing his eyes desperately at the opposite wall. Great. Just great. Now that he had just discovered some more-than-friendly feelings for his roommate, he was finding himself _turned on_ by Roose's innocent looks and ways. Great.

"What kind of training are we doing today, Ya~ma~gi~kun?"

Forcing himself to slip back into his laid back, gruff manner, Yamagi said shortly, "I don't know."

"Oh. Okay." Roose, of course, was undaunted by his coarse tone. In fact, he was very used to it. It amazed Yamagi that he hadn't begged for a change of rooms, though such a thing couldn't be done.

Glancing at the time again, Yamagi yanked his shirt off over his head as he searched for his training uniform as well. He really _didn't_ know what they would be doing that day; their instructor, Azuma Hijitaka, hadn't said anything about it. They had just finished their courses with the senior candidates, however, so it was anyone's guess what would happen today.

"Yamagi-kun..."

"I'm coming," he said quickly, slamming his foot on the ground to force his shoe the rest of the way on.

They walked down the hallway in silence. It was the usual kind of silence for the most part, the peaceful kind that one knew would have to be interrupted by Zero Enna's panicked shouts of being late any moment. To Roose, it was probably just any normal day. To Yamagi, it was as if he had just met his roommate.

After a few minutes Roose spoke up. "Yamagi-kun?"

Startled, Yamagi looked up at him. For once he didn't resent the boy's height. "Yeah?"

He smiled. "Thank you."

Yamagi blinked. "For what?"

"For last night... Thanks for being a friend." Roose hesitated looking as though he were going to say something else, then fell silent. "Anno..."

Yamagi could practically feel his obvious discomfort. "What?"

"Could... Could we _not_ mention it to Wrecka-chan?" Yamagi frowned. "She... She might get ideas," Roose added, blushing.

Yamagi had half a mind to say that he _wanted_ to tell Wrecka; maybe she would back off and give him room. That thought only lasted a split second, though, before he remembered that should anyone threaten to take Roose away from her Wrecka wouldn't give a second thought to killing them. If it were Yamagi she might just castrate him. He cringed at the thought.

"Sure..."

Roose looked immensely relieved. "Thank you."

Well, it wasn't like Yamagi was going to tell anyone else anyway, but he kept his mouth shut. No need to upset Roose again; he had been extra careful about that since the last time he'd exploded at him.

As soon as they walked through the door, the first words out of their instructor's mouth were, "Going to be late again, are they?"

Yamagi jerked himself from his thoughts and glanced around; the only people in the room were the repairers, their instructor, Hiead, Roose and himself.

Kizna Towryk, a girl with pink hair and cat ears, was chattering cheerfully with Ikhny Allecto, who seemed to be a close friend of hers. All Yamagi knew about Kizna was that she was an ambitious girl. Her number was the same as his classmate, Zero Enna's. 88.

Ikhny was a shy girl and, unfortunately, Hiead Gner's partner. She and Hiead likewise shared the same number; 87. But while Ikhny was gentle and sweet, Hiead was cold and rough. He didn't seem to like his repairer at all. She seemed afraid of him.

Then there was Clay Cliff Fortran's partner, Saki Mimori. She seemed a very bright and spunky girl, certainly more adventurous than her partner. Clay constantly embarrassed her by running away in battle; probably her most embarrassing moment was when her partner had lasted only four seconds in a battle simulation.

Tsukasa Kuscha, Yamagi's own partner, frightened him. She was tall, very tall, and very pale with dark hair that made her even paler. It wasn't her looks that scared him, though (he did resent her for her height, as he did with most everybody) it was the way she liked to follow him and simply some of the things she said or did that disturbed him. Particularly the name she insisted on calling him made him angry; "Yama-san".

Wrecka Toesing. Wrecka, Wrecka, Wrecka. Before Yamagi really hadn't cared for her, but now he even allowed himself to admit that he was jealous of her. Wrecka was Roose's partner; not only that, but something deeper seemed to flow between them than just partner or friendship... Something Yamagi did not like _at all._ He didn't know what it was, but he knew if he ever found out he would hate her completely.

Roose had left his side to talk to his partner. She seemed to be talking animatedly and he was hanging on to her every word, a bright smile on his face.

Jealousy.

Yamagi had to shake his head to free himself of those thoughts. _'No, no, no! Since when did you have any claim on him? Since when did anything like that matter? Becoming a pilot in the most important thing... Victim... Roose... Kill Victim... Roose... Damn it!'_

With a soft _swish_ the door slid open. Zero Enna and Clay Cliff Fortran toppled in, Zero tripping over his own feet and Clay tripping over Zero. Yamagi rolled his eyes; morons.

"Late again," stated Azuma flatly.

"G... Gomen," gasped Clay as he tried to catch his breath.

Azuma held up a hand, frowning. "I don't want to hear excuses. Get up!" Out of the corner of his eye, Yamagi noticed Hiead smirking at Zero, who was glaring at the red-eyed boy venomously. He briefly wondered if either of them would-- No, definitely not Hiead. But maybe Zero... But why would he want to talk to _him_ about that? Zero was a moron.

Today's training was going to be something slightly different. "One-on-one fighting," Azuma announced. Yamagi nearly groaned; he knew how it would end up. Zero and Hiead would be paired up and observed while they beat each other near death. The rest of them would just watch. The spotlight was always focused on those two; he, personally, was sick of it. Clay and Roose looked relieved, though. Neither of them were one of the better fighters, though Roose was a bit better than Clay. And Yamagi wasn't being biased; at least Roose didn't try to run away from a fight.

Azuma surprised them all, however, when he turned to the pilot candidates and said firmly, "First round, number 85 vs. 87. Get going."

Hiead's expression of satisfaction died when he looked at Roose. Scoffing quietly, he stalked past them, shooting Roose a dark look. He had obviously wanted to fight Zero; he considered him to be the only candidate worth fighting.

Roose whimpered softly and was instantly at Yamagi side-- or his back, rather. He seemed to be trying to hide behind him, though for the life of him Yamagi couldn't figure out _why._ "W-What are you doing?" he nearly shouted, blushing slightly as Roose grasped his shoulders and tried to duck behind him. "Roose! Get off!"

"Not Hiead, not him," Roose mumbled.

"He's not going to kill you, especially not if the instructor's watching," hissed Yamagi as he shook his shoulder, trying to cut off all physical contact with the boy. It was driving him crazy; he liked Roose touching him and that scared him.

"Yamagi-kun..."

"Number 85!"

Roose winced. "H-hai..." he said meekly as Wrecka grasped a hold of his elbow and began to drag him towards the door. Yamagi wasn't sure if he was relieved or angry. After all, she was relieving him of the contact, but then she was _touching_ Roose.

Perhaps he had let his mind wander too long; he didn't know. But the next thing that Yamagi heard was a familiar cry of pain, the same sound he heard when he kicked the person. His head snapped up in time to see Hiead lunging at Roose. His already wide eyes grew even larger; what the fuck was Hiead doing?!

"Hiead! Stop it! You'll hurt him!" Ikhny cried.

"Shut up!"

"Roose! Roose, just get back, you need to gain some ground-- _Damn it!_" Wrecka swore.

Yamagi understood, but that didn't mean he liked it, not a bit. Before he hadn't cared much for Hiead; now he was beginning to hate him.

Hiead just wanted to get the match over with; he was that eager to fight Zero. So his way of going about it was to eliminate all obstacles until he reached his destination.

Hiead swung out at Roose again, this time connecting with his chest. Roose let out a whimper but this time didn't try to get up from the ground. He was gasping and looked to be in a lot of pain. Panic surged through Yamagi as he edged closer to the observation window, anxiously peering in. _'Damn it, someone end the fucking match!'_

"It's over," he heard Azuma say coldly. "Repairers, withdraw your pilots." He turned to Clay. "Go to the infirmary and call in a stretcher. 85 may have a few broken limbs."

A couple broken ribs was more exact. Yamagi heard it from Clay, who had accompanied Wrecka and Roose down to the infirmary. It certainly explained why Roose hadn't been able to breathe properly. It looked as though he was going to be out of commission for at least a couple weeks, a month at most.

Yamagi collapsed on his bed, staring up blankly at the ceiling. It was his first time sleeping without Roose since the boy had gone off on Wrecka's mysterious dieting program. He'd just gotten used to him, was beginning to have strong feelings for the boy... Maybe this was a good thing, he reasoned. He needed to think.

But now that he had the time and space to think, he found his thoughts clouded with the innocent boy more than ever. Growling softly, Yamagi threw his pillow at the wall angrily.

Knocking from the door startled him. He really didn't want to talk to anyone, but he was also curious as to who wanted to talk to _him_. Swinging his legs over the side of his bed, Yamagi stood and stretched before walking over to the sliding door. His palm pressed a flat button on the wall and the door slid open to reveal Zero Enna.

Yamagi blinked once. "Hello," he said flatly.

"Hey," said Zero cheerfully. "What's up? You look a little beat and you didn't even get to fight today."

"I could say the same for you, Zero Enna." Impatient, he demanded, "What do you want?"

Zero's expression turned serious, something Yamagi definitely wasn't used to. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you alone... That's okay, ne?"

Yamagi frowned and muttered reluctantly, "I suppose..."

Using those words as a form of invitation, Zero stepped into the room and walked over to Roose's bed, lying down and relaxing on it. Yamagi glared at him darkly, but Zero simply smiled.

"Ne, Yamagi... You like Roose, don't you?"

The words caught him off guard, leaving him only one way to respond; defensively. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You like Roose," he repeated, sitting up but resting most of his weight on his hands. "As in more than just a roommate... Ne?"

Yamagi quickly debated; deny it or admit to it. If he admitted to it, Zero might tease him about it and it was already bad enough being teased for his height. But if he denied it, it would be pointless and stupid, not to mention lying.

"What makes you think that?"

"Mostly your expression when Hiead was kicking his ass."

_'Damn it!'_ Yamagi glared at his classmate, trying to decide whether to attack him right then or not.

Zero's smile was gentle. "Relax. I don't think there's anything wrong with it."

Yamagi's anger drained slowly. "You don't?" he asked in surprise.

"No." His secretive smile made Yamagi curious, but he said nothing. "I just wanted to make sure."

"Why?"

"Because if I didn't it would have driven me insane wondering."

Of course. Zero was so simple like that. Yamagi shook his head in exasperation but Zero was speaking again. "Also, I thought I'd let you know that Wrecka would like to see you."

Wrecka? Why would she want to talk to him? Nodding once, Yamagi pressed the button on the door. Zero was smart enough to understand that was his ce to leave, so he smiled and waved before exiting the room and disappearing into the one he shared with Clay and Hiead across the hall.

Yamagi considered; talk to Wrecka or not? A part of him was saying no, dreading the fact that she, too, had discovered his secret, but another part of him was insisting that he go in case it had something to do with Roose. It was a very, very tough decision to make.

* * *

"There you are!"

Yamagi flinched at Wrecka's loud tone before he folded his arms over his chest, trying to calm his racing heart. There still was a big part of him dreading her knowing about his crush on Roose.

"Yeah. I'm here. What do you want?" he asked shortly.

Wrecka was smiling, and it didn't look like the kind of evil smile that told you she was about to rip you limb from limb. "Look, Roose is sleeping. You know how dependent he is. I _know_ I can trust you with him, ne?" Her tone had a threatening note to it.

Confused, he uttered, "Yeah... What do you want me to do?"

She relaxed. "I'm just going for a dinner break. I'll bring him something when I get back. Just stay with him until I do get back, all right?"

He blinked. This was most unexpected. "Uh... Sure."

"Thank you," she practically sang. "He might not wake up, but if he does just let him know I'll be back as soon as possible!"

"Fine." Yamagi watched her until she disappeared around a corner before he entered the infirmary.

Roose was in there, fast asleep. He looked as sweet and innocent, making Yamagi's pulse race too fast for his own liking. Closing his eyes and trying to clear his thoughts, he allowed himself to sit down in a chair beside the bed. He turned the chair backwards before sitting down so he could rest his arms on the back of it.

"Moron," he muttered aloud, though his voice was slightly more affectionate than chastising. "You just seem to find a lot of ways to skip training, don't you?

"It's not completely your fault, though... Hiead's just a sick bastard." Yamagi scowled. "If that onna doesn't get to him first, next time I see him I'll kill him for doing this to you. Disgusting son of a bitch."

He paused in speaking. He could have sworn Roose had almost opened his eyes. When nothing else happened save Roose's peaceful breathing, Yamagi continued. It was almost comforting speaking to someone, even if that someone was asleep. Him being asleep just made it seem easier to talk about nearly anything. Nearly.

"I don't understand how you put up with that onna. She's insane." He shook his head, grimacing. "Though I suppose she's better than Tsukasa." Hesitating, he lifted his hand and gently placed it over his roommate's. "Innocent moron," he muttered. "You don't know..."

It was a good thing he'd hesitated there, because right then Roose emitted a sleepy yawn and stirred. He winced before opening his eyes and Yamagi scowled. "Stop moving so much. You'll hurt yourself even worse."

Roose smiled. "Konnichi wa, Yamagi-kun."

"Hello." He fought to keep his voice impassive as he spoke.

The green-eyed boy turned his head, trying to look around the room. "Where's Wrecka-chan?"

A hot surge of jealousy coursed through Yamagi again. It was so strong it amazed him that he could keep his voice steady and still uncaring as he spoke. "It's dinner now. She went to get herself and you something to eat. She'll be back soon."

"Oh." Roose looked disappointed. Yamagi _felt_ disappointed. He wanted to spend more time with him.

"Yamagi-kun?"

"What?"

Roose smiled faintly. "I think there's a button on the side somewhere... Could you find it? I want to sit up."

Yamagi glanced at the small control pad on Roose's right, directly in front of him. He studied it for a moment before his finger applied pressure to a blue button. To his relief, it was the right one. It moved Roose up enough so that he was at eye level with Yamagi.

"Thank you."

Yamagi shrugged. "No problem." He glanced at the time and stood, pushing the chair back into its correct position. "I'll go check and see if she's coming."

Roose stopped him. "Yamagi-kun?"

He sighed, crossing his arms. "What, Roose?"

"Would you... Hold me?"

Yamagi stared at him stupidly, heat rising in his face. "Hold you...?"

Roose's voice was pleading. "I don't want to be left alone. Please, Yamagi-kun?"

He liked the boy too much for his own good. Slowly, Yamagi nodded and carefully sat down on the bed beside Roose. He leaned back into it and awkwardly slid an arm around the boy. Roose looked very happy and content as he closed his eyes and rested his head on Yamagi's shoulder. Yamagi was worried the position would upset Roose's broken ribs, but he didn't seem hurt at all.

Roose's voice came as a whisper. "Thank you, Yamagi-kun."

He lifted his free shoulder in the gesture of a shrug. "No problem." This was actually quite comfortable for him, too. A small smile lit his face briefly.

Amazingly enough, Roose fell asleep rather quickly. Still Yamagi didn't move; if anyone asked, he could tell the truth. Roose wanted him there. Of course, he wanted to be there, too, but no one had to know that, right?

Of course not.

**:: Owari ::**


End file.
